The present invention relates to a digital information reproduction apparatus such as a compact disk (CD), a digital audio tape recorder (DAT) or the like, and particularly to an improvement in a display device provided in an information reproduction apparatus for vehicles (referred to as "car audio device" hereinafter).
Car audio devices are required to be of small size and easy to handle because they are used under specific conditions, i.e., in automobile cars, apart from home audio devices. The occupied area of the indicator provided on a console panel is therefore limited. It is also generally accepted that the number of information items to be simultaneously displayed on an indicator part is reduced for the purpose of making it easy to see display contents. In this situation, a method of switching and displaying necessary minimum information by using a change-over switch is generally employed for displaying a great amount of information.
Conventional display devices are generally designed so that information about a music piece number currently in reproduction and time information such as an elapsed playing time and the like are displayed on an indicator. When it is desired to know the total number of pieces of music recorded on a CD, the display contents are switched by operating the display change-over switch each time. When the desired music piece to be reproduced is searched for, i.e., during a track search operation, only information on the music piece number to be searched for is displayed on the indicator.
However, there are some cases where it is desired to know the position of the music piece number currently being search for out of the total number of pieces of music recorded on a CD. However, it is difficult to operate the change-over switch for track search during driving. Therefore, the total number of music pieces is not displayed on the indicator. The conventional display devices therefore have a problem with respect to convenience of use.